Psychotic. This is some truly crazy and hypocritical crap. Stop trying to legislate morality, you idiots. http://online.wsj.com/public/articl...5pPdmcNbHiFO_DWw3aYX0_20070315.html?mod=blogs
If they had only booked ZZ Top, Willie Nelson and Robert Earl Keen as the halftime entertainment for the Super Bowl in Houston, as they should have, none of this shizznit would have happened....
Q: What are the fines for polluting waterways, ignoring mine safety, failed meat inspections, etc.? A: Orders of magnitude less than a fine for implied teenage sex on a fictional TV show.
Pathetic. Red Lion should be overturned. Turn the TV off or change the channel, prudes. There is all kinds of crappy 'moral" proggramming available. You should be fined every time I accidently turn to PAX TV.
There are probably many like you who are - that doesn't make it right, or in my opinion, constitutional.
Wow. I didn't realize the orders of magnitude would be so great... From Digby... Miners, Minors. I guess that one vowel makes a bunch of difference. This is why I'm in favor of repealing all child labor laws and making them work without clothes... When kids are working in mines naked, the Right will finally take worker safety seriously. Eh, probably not. But still, making kids work in mines is a good idea, what with the free market, no free lunches, pull yourself up by the bootstrap, forget about kids as soon as they are born ideas that represent true America and more importantly, patriotism, as we can't say anything that might be construed as negative in reference to our President, flag, fundamentalist beliefs, businesses, or country... which is all the same anyway.
too bad there wasnt a poll put on this to see who agrees with the fines and the severity. it is insane to me.
Why, JV? Why are you cool with it? I'm curious. From where I sit, it is absurd. What exactly do you find cool about the blatant disparity between what is a huge fine being levied against CBS for a scene in which a "teenage orgy" was supposedly "suggested," with no nudity involved, yet "an episode of Oprah Winfrey's talk show that featured graphic language about teen sex," gets nothing, and the FCC assessed a $27,500 fine for a "Pool Party" episode of the WB Television Network's "The Surreal Life 2" in 2004, which the FCC said went over the line by featuring 20 nude female friends of p*rn actor Ron Jeremy. Although the network used pixilation to obscure the women's bodies, the FCC ruled it was "unmistakable" that partygoers were exposing themselves and "participating in sexual activities." You see no disparity there. You have no problem with what is clearly an attempt to intimidate CBS, which is clearly singled out? You don't think there is anything political about this censorship, which is what it is? Frankly, I don't understand those with reasoning like yours. We control what our kids watch on TV. We don't expect the government to do it for us, and we certainly don't want an agency with a clear political agenda attempting to restrict our freedom of speech, whether it is on television, in the movies, on a theatre stage, or the internet... or anywhere else. We think it is our responsibility as parents to see to our kids upbringing, not the government in Washington DC, via a political appointment with an agenda. This isn't local control through our schools as to what our children can, or cannot do on a school campus. This is the Federal government sticking it's nose into our living room. In our house, they are unwelcome. We'll take care of that ourselves, thank you very much. (I'm really not trying to pick on you JV. I respect you a great deal, and you're one of my favorite posters on the BBS, who speaks his mind from an independent perspective, instead of being part of a clique. I just feel very strongly about the government staying out of the business of raising my kids, and this sort of thing drives me up a wall.) Keep D&D Civil.
Right again, my outrage is inconsequential - To arbitrarily issue exorbitant fines every time a bunch of self-styled morality crusaders b**** in such a fashion is wrong and unconstitutional based on its own merits.
Last time I checked, TVs had 3 features to prevent kids from watching "inappropriate" shows: -V-Chip -Those little number buttons which let you change the channel -The "Power" button
I have not seen any of the things that TV stations have been fined for. So, I can't really say that one was disproportionate compared to another. The fines for CBS are large, but have to be in order to affect their behavior at all. Is CBS being singled out? I don't know. Why would they be? From a government intimidation standpoint, I wouldn't be happy if a department was using indecency fines to punish a broadcaster for an unrelated slight. From a censorship standpoint, I'm not too concerned. The government regulates the airwaves because there are finite bands to broadcast on. The broadcasters broadcast by the grace of the federal government. To promise to keep the material from getting too smutty is a pretty light requirement to use a national resource that is so humongously profitable. I don't think broadcasters should be able to do as they like with our airwaves. I'm not worried about the freedom of speech implications because, in my view, if we cut the bull****, this isn't real speech. They're making money, not having a political discourse. That's fine, I'm fine with them making money, but I laugh whenever a broadcaster, pornographer or whatever hides behind free speech. They aren't saying anything worthwhile. I'm not sure how protecting kids comes into this. I don't give a **** what the children are exposed to. That may be the concern of some in the government. I see a benefit to keeping smut off the airwaves completely apart from the existence of children. The FCC doesn't draw the line in the same place I would. But, I recognize and endorse their right to control the airwaves. Maybe under the next president, we can move the line to somewhere more people will be happy. But, that's a minor issue compared to their right to intervene at all. Plus, I don't ever watch television.
